Weight loss monitoring reduces the occurrence of neonatal hypernatremic dehydration in breastfeeding neonates

• Published in: International journal of pediatrics & adolescent medicine 2022-03, Vol.9 (1), p.22-26
• Main Authors: Zia, Muhammad TK, Golombek, Sergio, Nitkowski-Keever, Sabrina, Paudel, Umesh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Baby friendly hospital; Breastfeeding; Hypernatremic dehydration; Neonatal fever; Original; Weight loss
• ISSN: 2352-6467; 2352-6467
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpam.2021.02.004

Excessive weight loss enhances the incidence of neonatal hypernatremic dehydration (NHD). We compared the effect of a new breastfeeding policy against an old breastfeeding policy on neonatal weight change and the incidence of NHD. This was a QA project between two sets of breastfeeding (BF) protocols for exclusively BF newborns. Under our old BF policy, a number of neonates had a significant loss of weight after birth and were admitted to the NICU due to NHD. We implemented a new BF policy that was used when a newborn loses>5% of previously recorded weight within a 24-h interval. Two groups were compared: the preintervention group (old BF policy) and postintervention group (new BF policy). Additionally, characteristics of newborns admitted to NICU were separately compared with the subgroup of pre- and post intervention dehydration groups. Preintervention = 1320 and postintervention = 1450. Neonates with weight loss of ≥ 5% within the first 24-h time interval were higher in the postintervention group (19.7%) as compared to the preintervention group (10.2%) (P